Joe Eszterhas drops out, tunes in and turns out a raunchy story of Clinton, sex and Hollywood

In the living room of his sumptuous Point Dume villa--overlooking the Pacific Ocean and built, metaphorically, on the comely flesh of Elizabeth Berkley and the famously flashed nethers of Sharon Stone--grizzled screenwriter and author Joe Eszterhas is explaining the imperative of not treating women as sex objects. "If we yearn for a better America, that sensitivity is all important," he says, dead earnest. "We must work toward a society where we show a respect toward human beings and view them as human beings and not pieces of meat."

Yes, that was Joe Eszterhas, the high-priced scribe who riled women, gays and...